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Standalone CD players - worth the hassle?

Rapidan

Rapidan

Well-Known Member
OK, let me get a few things out of the way - If this has been covered, I apologize, but I'm a bit confused. I'm mostly a vinyl person and never really made a serious switch to CD's, not because of any prejudice but because I have thousands of LP's and 45's. I did buy a CD player in the 80's, a Sony cheapie, and a Phillips CD recorder sometime around 2000. The first Sony cheapie died and I recently replaced it with a Sony thrift store unit. Both it and the Phillips sound generally like ass. Grainy, gritty, screechy, blurry, etc..... The more complex and loud the material, the worse they get. One thing I notice is that they both have very hot outputs, to the point where you have to be very careful when switching sources.

Now I'm interested in creating a digital server, I've been playing with a few ADACS (Lexicon Alpha and an M-Audio Fast Track). Right away, I noticed that CD's ripped to ALAC, or even 256 MP4's on my old Apple G4 lappie, generally sound MUCH better than anything I get out of these CD players.
Is this because A) The CD players have crappy D/A converters and/or analog stages, or B) The hot output is causing a bit of distortion in my preamp line stage, or C) both or none of the above?

I'm about ready to upgrade to a new Apple, any reason I shouldn't use this old G4 as a dedicated music source/ vinyl ripper / CD transport? Seems like an external hard drive to store all the music files is a LOT cheaper than a high end standalone CD player.

I'm interested in your thoughts and advice.
 
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I use my DVD player as my CDP... sounds a LOT better, plus it will play a CD that you load 100 or so MP3 files on..
 
Mine was a $35 Refurbes Phillips that has a lot of hacks for on the web..

I would say they sound better because the technology for reading and converting to souund is better? and better chips?
 
With CD, it's all in the analog output stages. I would suggest popping a DAC on the digital output. There might be times it would be convenient to have a stand alone player always ready to go.
IME, CD players do sound different from one another. I went from a 90's JVC which I liked, got laid off, sold it, replaced later with a Marantz CD63SE. The Marantz had more detail but was far too "hot" for my taste. Then tried a MF X-10 tube device. Huge difference, much more analog sounding. However, everything started to sound the same to me. Replaced that with my current DAC and now I'm a happy camper. Sounds every bit as good to me as my old analog set up -Transcriptors Vestigal, Sonus Blue, TD 125, PAS 3X, citation 12, and my old ADS 810's. My only issue with CD is that poor mastering is common. That is when I wish I had my records back!
 
There are some great sounding standalone CDPs, but it´s up to your budget. Any Naim, Arcam or Cambridge Audio TOTL are great CDPs but these are not cheap.
 
If convenience / listening habits don't require a stand-alone CDP for you, then that's that. You can upgrade DACs to your heart's delight instead.
 
Thanks for the input, everyone. I think I'll try just using the computer as a transport for a bit, and look at upgrade options if that's too much of a hassle (it may be.....) I looked into using the digital I/O on the Phillips, but it uses coax RCA digital I/O, it has an optical connector but it's CDR input only. The transport is too wonky to go through the hassle of converters, etc. Perhaps I need to fully enter the 21st century.
 
I think having a good standalone CDP player in my setup is nice to have as an option rather than my go-to listening source. I'm sold on having a hard drive as my first source just for the convenience factor alone.
 
I agree, having a stanalone cdp is very handy - especially since it's still tough to buy music in lossless formats. I have all my music ripped to my server and I play it through my squeezebox much of the time. (with a stanalone DAC doing the conversion - the SB3 left a little to be desired in the analog end) However, I still have a cdp in my 2-channel rig because a decent cdp was cheaper than another squeezebox and another standalone dac. (of course it doesn't hurt that I'm a dealer now and would want a demo model around anyway)

All that aside, your negative experience was definitely caused by a crappy analog output section. CDP's can sound very good, and people who claim either they can't or they all sound alike haven't tried a nice one most likely.
 
OP, it sounds like you've used nothing but really cheap cd players since day one. or did I miss something. No wonder you hate the format.
 
Thanks again, you folks have confirmed my suspicions. Seems quite odd that the does-it-all optical drive in my computer does a better job (with a little tweaking) than the "built for audio" standalone CDP, even a cheap one. What a world. I was quite startled when I downloaded Allen Toussaint's "Bright Mississippi" from iTunes (I had a gift card) and it sounded... well, great! A beautiful recording. I then ripped a few CD's, matched levels and A/B listened to the ALAC files (through my inexpensive DAC) next to both CDPs. The computer/ADAC was worlds better, really as good as anything.

And you're right, none of these formats can improve a bad recording or poor mastering. But at least I'm starting to feel like all these formats are viable and listenable with the correct gear.
 
keithpgdrb said:
OP, it sounds like you've used nothing but really cheap cd players since day one. or did I miss something. No wonder you hate the format.
Click to expand...

Yep, I'm guilty. I initially thought the Phillips was a "good" CDP (it cost plenty) and also thought I would be ripping lots of records to it. I got over that notion fairly quickly. I never really got seriously involved in the format and figured the transport/ laser is the heart of the thing, the rest is bells and whistles. I know better now. I'm still not sure I'll lay out a bunch of cash for a CDP with a good analog stage, but you never know. At least I now have the ability to listen to them a little closer to their intended fidelity. I don't hate the format, I just hate crappy sounding music.
 
There are differences in CD/DVD players, different DACs, power supplies, and output stages, etc...

I listen to CDs and vinyl. I really like my Yamaha DVD-S2700 DVD/CD/SACD player, my Pioneer BD-51FD BluRay/CD player and the Arcam CD37 (gone). If I could have only one, for CDs, I would say the Yamaha is "the one".
 
I just rip them and play from the computer 98% of the time. Every now and then I'll put in a disc into a standalone player.
 
All my CD's are ripped to the hard drive. I use the squeezebox duet to get the 0s and 1s to the DAC which converts them to analog and outputs it to the amp. If I want to actually play a CD I use my laptop's DVD player which is made possible by using an add-on to Squeezebox Server. It all sounds great and is very convenient.

I think I have two standalone CD players gathering dust in my garage.
 
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